Cheesesteak Review #60: Talk of the Town Cheesesteaks of Philadelphia

For my 60th cheesesteak review I headed to Philadelphia and more specifically t0 South Philly and found a place not to far away from the Sports Complex which has gotten really good reviews in the past. I tried Talk of the Town located off of Broad Street. Talk of the Town is a small place with very little parking and very little seating. I visited them in the middle of the afternoon so I didn’t have any issues with either. I can imagine that on days of sporting events and other events at the Sports Complex that it would get extremely packed since its within walking distance. As usual I had the normal, a regular cheesesteak with provolone and fried onions.

Bread-The bread was only average. It was a standard Italian roll. The roll didn’t have much of a taste and it wasn’t the freshest. It wasn’t as soft as most places but it did an OK job housing all of the ingredients and absorbing some of the grease produced by the meat.

Cheese-The cheese was very good. It had an excellent provolone taste and it was melted throughout the entire cheesesteak so I don’t have any complaints when it comes to the cheese.

Meat-The meat was pretty decent as well. They normally use big pieces of steak but they do offer a chopped version. I opted for the chopped version because just about all of my other reviews featured meat cut up in to small pieces. Even though the meat was chopped up, the piece weren’t that small. They weren’t big enough to cause problems but I would have preferred smaller pieces. Anyway the meat had an excellent taste to it. I don’t know what they seasoned the meat with but it was delicious. The quality was also pretty standard as well. There was a little grease produced from the meat and I did find a few pieces of gristle. Lastly the meat was cooked perfectly. I didn’t have to deal with any burnt or under cooked pieces. From end to end the meat was cooked evenly.

Amount-I wasn’t too impressed with the size of the cheesesteak. The roll was your typical 10 inch roll, however they kind of skimped on the meat. There were a decent amount of fried onions and cheese included but it wasn’t enough to make up for the small amount of meat included.

Fried Onions-The fried onions were perfect. They were grilled to a nice caramel color and crispy texture. The onions were also cut up in to small pieces that were mixed throughout the entire cheesesteak which is a huge plus.

In all the cheesesteak from Talk of the Town was just average. It wasn’t terrible but it didn’t come close in comparison in quality to 75% of the other cheesesteaks I have reviewed so far. I would definitely give their cheesesteak a second try though if I was in the area again primarily due to the fact that there aren’t any other cheesesteak places within walking distance of the Sports Complex. The menu at Talk of the Town also contains other sandwiches, burgers and hoagies so even if cheesesteaks aren’t your thing there will probably be something else on the menu to appeal to your liking.

I’m coming to Philly from DC this weekend. Basically I’m coming to eat a Philli cheesesteak visit the Barnes and go to the Nats/phillies game. Can you please recommend a good place for a cheesesteak? Thanks. Tim

First off thanks for checking out my blog. I would recommend checking out a cheesesteak place on South Street. They are a few different places you can try. Steaks on South, Ishkabibbles and Jim’s Steaks are all within the same block. Plus South street offers lots more like shopping, and bars as well.

If you haven’t been to the city before you may want to check out Pat’s and/or Geno’s. Yes, they are a tourist trap, but I think everyone should try them at least once even though they aren’t that great.